Accompanying "Loneliness" with Love--Understanding Children's Autism

1. What is autism?

Autism is a developmental brain disorder characterized by social interaction disorders, communication disorders, and repetitive and restricted interests and behaviors.

Autism begins before the age of three and becomes obvious after the age of three. The vast majority of children require long-term rehabilitation training and special education support.

2. What are the symptoms of autism?

01. Social interaction disorder

Extreme loneliness, obvious lack of social and emotional response, lack of attachment to parents, lack of eye contact with people, rarely or unable to actively communicate; unable to communicate through gaze, expression, posture or gesture; unable to establish partnerships with other children; lack of interest in group games, and cannot resonate with group joy; will not seek support or comfort when encountering setbacks, and will not actively provide support or comfort when others encounter setbacks.

02. Communication barriers

Speech development is delayed or not developed, and there may be a tendency to use gestures or other forms of communication instead of verbal communication; stereotyped repetition of words with no obvious connection to the environment or ongoing activities; abnormalities in the tone, speed, rhythm, stress, etc. of speech; obvious impairment of the ability to understand speech; normal development of speech function before the age of two, but obstacles after two years, and even complete inability to speak.

03. Narrow interests and stereotyped repetitive behaviors

Stereotyped and narrow interests (for example, focusing on dates, advertisements, weather reports, etc.); special attachment to something; performing special ritualistic behaviors; stereotyped repetitive movements and postures; special interest in non-essential parts of something (toys) (for example, smells, noises, etc.); unwillingness or refusal to make any changes to personal living environment.

3. Rehabilitation goals for children with autism at different ages.

01 Preschool period: Focus on basic life skills, establish emotional dependence and desire for language expression, and focus on the cultivation of self-care abilities such as eating, dressing, taking off shoes, and handling urination and defecation, as well as language expression ability.

02 School age: Reshape the ability to adapt and learn, establish emotional control and daily routines, cultivate independent learning and self-care abilities, and in the later stage, explore their specialties such as painting and music. Family members should actively participate in this stage to integrate learning into life. With the participation of the family, find appropriate teaching and training goals, and integrate the teaching content into life to achieve learning goals.

03 Adolescence: The focus is to consolidate the learning skills that have been acquired, enhance children's ability to adapt to society, and prevent the physical and mental imbalance and emotional fluctuations caused by puberty.

4. Autism intervention methods.

01Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy (ABA)

It advocates the use of behaviorist principles and behavior shaping principles, and mainly promotes the development of various abilities of autistic children through positive reinforcement. The training emphasizes high intensity, individualization, and systematization.

02Training of therapeutic education courses for children with autism

Individualized training content is designed based on the characteristics of autistic children's abilities and behaviors, and targeted education is provided for children's defects in language, communication, sensory perception, and movement. The core is to enhance autistic children's understanding and obedience of the environment, education, and training content.

03Interpersonal Relationship Training

Floor time therapy, interpersonal relationship development intervention therapy.

04Physical therapy

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, etc.

05Sensory Integration Training

It can effectively improve the dynamic and static balance ability of autistic patients, and at the same time can improve vestibular imbalance, tactile oversensitivity and enhance intelligence level, but it has poor effect on improving self-care ability; the younger the age and the longer the training time, the more obvious the effect.

06Speech training

The purpose is to correct the child's vocalization and articulation defects. It is a set of targeted behavioral training and methods. The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) can improve emotional cognition and expression ability, and visual tools such as pictures, tables, and symbols can improve vocabulary, active and passive expression times, and willingness.

07Music Therapy

Studies have found that autistic patients have higher musical abilities and talents than healthy people, and have extraordinary musicality and phonetic abilities. At the same time, music can enhance multiple sensory stimulation, explore the learning ability of patients, thereby promoting the improvement of verbal communication skills and techniques, shaping correct behaviors and social emotions, and has a good effect on improving active verbal expression, transforming and improving stereotyped behaviors, and enhancing social adaptability.

(Note: All pictures are from the Internet)